Chap­ter 16 of We Solve Mur­ders opens with Jeff Nolan at his long-fre­quent­ed restau­rant, Bruno’s, where the famil­iar­i­ty of the set­ting offers a sense of com­fort. The act of refus­ing Parme­san, a ges­ture small yet mean­ing­ful, high­lights the per­son­al nature of Jeff’s rela­tion­ship with the estab­lish­ment and its staff. As he sifts through var­i­ous files, includ­ing some old­er ones, Jeff reflects on the long road he has trav­eled, bat­tling obsta­cles, and striv­ing to keep his busi­ness afloat amidst mount­ing pres­sures. Despite the hec­tic nature of his life, Jeff savors the peace of din­ing alone—a rare escape from the fast-paced work he is so accus­tomed to, and a stark con­trast to the many cor­po­rate din­ners filled with clients and busi­ness deals. For Jeff, Bruno’s has become a refuge, a place where the chaos of his life fades away, if only for a brief moment.

Jef­f’s career tra­jec­to­ry has been a sto­ry of remark­able achieve­ments dri­ven by his innate atten­tion to detail. By the age of eigh­teen, he had already begun accu­mu­lat­ing sig­nif­i­cant wealth, and by twen­ty-four, he had secured his first home in Sevenoaks. His aspi­ra­tions only grew as he tran­si­tioned into his late twen­ties, even­tu­al­ly pur­chas­ing a lux­u­ri­ous town­house in May­fair by the age of twen­ty-eight. This remark­able suc­cess was fueled by Jef­f’s obses­sion with precision—qualities that he dis­cov­ered ear­ly on in his life after a lack­lus­ter secu­ri­ty detail while work­ing with a Sau­di prince. Rec­og­niz­ing a gap in the mar­ket, Jeff piv­ot­ed to the close-pro­tec­tion indus­try, where his sharp eye for detail served him well. By the time he reached thir­ty-five, Jeff was at the helm of his own enter­prise, find­ing not only finan­cial suc­cess but also per­son­al sat­is­fac­tion in his abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate the high-stakes world of secu­ri­ty.

As Jeff reads an email from François Lou­bet, the grav­i­ty of his sit­u­a­tion becomes more appar­ent. The email, dat­ed April 14th, serves as a veiled threat, ref­er­enc­ing the legal trou­bles of Jef­f’s clients and imply­ing that these com­pli­ca­tions are the direct con­se­quence of Jeff’s ear­li­er con­fronta­tion with Lou­bet. What was once a seem­ing­ly straight­for­ward pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ship now teeters on the edge of dan­ger, as the email hints at fur­ther entan­gle­ments, such as a mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure named “Joe Blow” who might have an even dark­er role in the ongo­ing trou­bles. The email serves as a stark reminder to Jeff of how quick­ly the sit­u­a­tion can spi­ral out of con­trol. It forces him to con­front the fact that his life and career are now heav­i­ly influ­enced by these high-risk inter­ac­tions, and every deci­sion made car­ries con­se­quences that extend far beyond his imme­di­ate con­trol. The sense of being trapped in a game he can’t entire­ly pre­dict or con­trol becomes increas­ing­ly appar­ent.

The sit­u­a­tion quick­ly takes a turn for the worse when a revving engine breaks the uneasy silence. In an instant, Jeff’s years of train­ing kick in as he reacts instinc­tive­ly, leap­ing from his seat and rush­ing out­side to see a black Jeep speed­ing toward the restau­rant. The crash into the restau­ran­t’s win­dows sends glass fly­ing, and the masked fig­ures emerg­ing from the vehi­cle wield­ing pis­tols mark the begin­ning of an unex­pect­ed and dan­ger­ous encounter. Jeff’s imme­di­ate response is to retreat into the kitchen, his mind rac­ing as he cal­cu­lates his best escape route. With the quick-think­ing of a sea­soned pro­fes­sion­al, Jeff makes it to the emer­gency exit and dash­es into the alley­ways of May­fair, nar­row­ly evad­ing the attack­ers. The dan­ger is pal­pa­ble, the air thick with the ten­sion of know­ing that his life is now at risk, all because of forces far beyond his con­trol.

This chap­ter is a dynam­ic blend of ten­sion, action, and psy­cho­log­i­cal depth, skill­ful­ly weav­ing Jeff’s past and present into a nar­ra­tive filled with high stakes. The dan­ger­ous encounter out­side the restau­rant serves as both a lit­er­al and fig­u­ra­tive turn­ing point for Jeff, forc­ing him to face the dead­ly game he’s been part of for years. Mean­while, the email from Lou­bet and the men­tion of “Joe Blow” cre­ate an ever-deep­en­ing sense of fore­bod­ing, sig­nal­ing that the web of threats sur­round­ing Jeff is only grow­ing more com­plex. The chap­ter ends with a height­ened sense of urgency, as Jeff escapes into the night, the events set­ting the stage for what promis­es to be a nail-bit­ing con­tin­u­a­tion of the sto­ry. With each pass­ing moment, Jeff is drawn deep­er into the dan­gers that sur­round him, and the true extent of the web of decep­tion he’s caught in becomes even more chill­ing­ly clear. The ten­sion, now pal­pa­ble, leaves the read­er eager­ly antic­i­pat­ing the next steps in this esca­lat­ing game of cat and mouse.